We were at the airport recently to pick up our adult grandson, and his plane was late. While we waited, a young boy and girl came off a plane at the next gate that shared our waiting room. Something happened that could have been really scary for those two children. There was no one there to meet them.
All of the large airline companies have a service called “Unescorted Minor Service.” This means a young boy or girl may fly on an airplane alone. There is no mom or dad flying with them to show them the right seats or to help them with their luggage or meals. These children wear large name tags on chains around their necks so the flight attendants will know who they are and will take care of them. Flight attendants take these special passengers on the plane first, and then they stay with them when they get off until someone picks them up. Even when one of their parents or another adult named on their ticket comes to pick them up, a picture identification is required before they may take the children.
The plane’s crew, including the pilot, waited with these two children a long time for someone to come pick them up. The flight crew was about to take the children to the airline office when a very excited mother and grandmother rushed into the waiting area to pick up the two children. It seemed like the parents were more disturbed by being late than were the children. The children didn’t seem worried; they had real confidence that they would not be left alone until their mother came for them.
As we watched all this taking place, I was thinking that just as the children who rode the plane had to have a ticket to get them where they were going, every boy and girl must have his or her paid fare to heaven. That’s because we are all sinners, and the Bible makes this very clear. It says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity [sins] of us all” (Isaiah 53:66All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)). This verse not only explains why God says we are sinners, but that the death of the Lord Jesus for our sins is the “paid fare” that each one of us may receive to open the way to be with Him in heaven. Receiving Him as your Saviour reserves a place for you up there. Unlike the children whose parents were late picking them up, the Lord Jesus Himself will take you to heaven. He has prepared a place up there for all who receive Him as their Saviour. One day soon He promises to come for us to take us to heaven. If we are alive when He comes, we will go with Him right then. But if He waits a little longer to come and some pass away, they will be “absent from the body and . . . present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:88We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)).
By accepting the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, you receive the paid fare He bought for you when He died for your sins on the cross. Have you sometimes put off doing something important and later have it cause much sadness? You must not delay to receive your paid fare. To delay may cause you to be too late. Then you would miss heaven. If the little boy and girl at the airport had not been on time when their flight left the other city, it would have made no difference whether or not their parents were on time to pick them up. They would not have been on the plane. The Lord’s coming is very near, and if you put off accepting Him as your Saviour, you could be left behind.
Are you ready?
ML-09/28/1997